diy led lights

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Any common LEDs will work - look around eBay, or any electronics supplier oriented towards hobbyists. Just look for something in a color you want with a wide beam width. They should be cheap enough (pennies each) that you can get a ton and try them out.

Once you get a LED you are interested in, find the current rating and Vf (forward voltage). Then use any of the LED calculators on the web to determine the resistor you need to use. Many low-power LEDs have Vfs between 2 and 3v, so with 10v to work with you might get 4 or 5 in series.

For instance you might use this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-pcs-5mm...ltDomain_0&hash=item2ebb86d767#ht_1573wt_1033

It's rated at 20mA and 3v. If you put three in series you have 9v.

Here's a calculator:

http://ledcalc.com/

It tells you that you need a 56ohm resistor. So you'd put the resistor and the three LEDs in series on one of the 10v channels of the Typhon.

If three were not bright enough, you could use six - putting two strings of three each in series. You could use one 56 ohm resistor in each string or put a 27 ohm resistor on for both.

I wouldn't go much over 50 - 60mA on the Typhon output doing this but it should be easy to get enough light for a moonlight with that sort of current.

 

[xandrew245x]

Ok, I think I understood that.

 

[xandrew245x]

Okay, before I advance any further in this build and spend money.

I have read some, and talked to some others, and I keep getting mixed reviews about leds.

I currently have a T5 fixture that is pretty beat, and has okay bulbs in them

For those that have leds, are you happy with them? How do they compare to other types of lighting and what kind of energy saving would I be looking at?

Also I heard from someone, coraline algae does not like to grow under leds, unless they are ran at like 20% is this true?

 

[xandrew245x]

Bump

 

[2Quills]

Okay, before I advance any further in this build and spend money.

I have read some, and talked to some others, and I keep getting mixed reviews about leds.

I currently have a T5 fixture that is pretty beat, and has okay bulbs in them

For those that have leds, are you happy with them? How do they compare to other types of lighting and what kind of energy saving would I be looking at?

Also I heard from someone, coraline algae does not like to grow under leds, unless they are ran at like 20% is this true?

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=19900254

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1718642&highlight=led+color+reference+thread

 

[xandrew245x]

Thank you 2quills...after looking through all that, it defiantly has me set on LEDs.

Seems that most of the people who don't like them are people who don't know how to properly use them ;P

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Seems that most of the people who don't like them are people who don't know how to properly use them ;P

To be fair, there's still a certain amount of "uncertainty" with LEDs. In my own tanks I do see some livestock reacting unexpectedly from time to time - a particular zoanthid refuses to do well, or a particular SPS has a dramatic color change compared to the MH tank it came from. I suspect that most of it has to do with spectral distribution - we don't yet know how to completely predict exactly how a given piece of livestock will react under the spectra of typically used LEDs, or exactly which LEDs to add or subtract from a typical build to get a more "bulletproof" spectrum.

That said, the beauty of DIY'ing LEDs is that you can experiment at will, very easily, by dimming things, switching optics, swapping out LEDs, and so on.

 

[xandrew245x]

This is true, but it seems that some don't even give it a chance, and its usually because they are dead set on a different type of lighting.

The good part is, individual leds are not that expensive, so like you said, I can easily experiment with moving them, or using a different color.

I'm also thinking about drilling and bolting the leds to the aluminum using plastic washers to keep them from coming in contact with the aluminum.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Drilling is fine, but it adds a fair amount of extra effort to the build compared with just swiping the back of the star with thermal epoxy.

 

[xandrew245x]

Yeah, and it adds more cost, but it does allow you to reuse a led if you removed it.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

You can reuse glued LEDs - you just have to scrape the adhesive off without damaging the surface. It's not a huge deal. But of course, this is mostly a matter of personal preference. I used to be a big advocate of screwing LEDs, but that was "back in the day" when I was spending more time changing fixtures around than running them on fish tanks.

 

[xandrew245x]

Okay, I think I'm going to just go with gluing them, it seems much much quicker and convenient in the long run

I have part of the frame drilled and bolted together, I used stainless steel bolts, and aluminum nuts, I really wanted to use stainless steel nuts, but they didn't have any.

Pictures soon!

 

[xandrew245x]

Also, I like the typhon controller, but boost doesn't have it, and I can't seem to find it anywhere.

I was told I could build my own, but I'm clueless on how to.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Read up:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1847680

 

[xandrew245x]

They said they would be back in stock within 1-2 weeks, but i'm tempted to build one so I can say "Hey I built that"

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

As I said above, the intention of the Typhon was to be a DIY project - the satisfaction of building it yourself can be very worthwhile.

 

[xandrew245x]

I'll think about it, no matter which route I decide to take I just still get the drivers that accept pwm signal right?

I'm going to order them here soon this is what I was thinking

30 Royal blue
6 regular blue
6 cool white
6 neutral white

This should give me a nice spectrum

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Yeah, the off the shelf Typhon and the build-it-yourself Typhon are essentially identical, so in both cases you'd want the PWM version of the driver.

LEDs sound fine to me.

 

[xandrew245x]

I was told to do a 3:1 ratio by a couple people, now I'm reading and being told by some others to go with 2:1.

I know par comes from the royal blues, I want to be able to keep anything in my tank, so I don't want to skimp on lighting.

3:1 is easier that way I can run 3 drivers for the blues and 1 driver for the whites. If I do 2:1 I have to either buy an extra driver, or mix whites and blues on one driver.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

It's pretty meaningless to talk about ratios without considering the actual model of LED and the drive current. I was basing my "approval" on the parameters mentioned earlier in the thread.

Also keep in mind that a fair amount of this is personal preference. Don't get caught up in where the PAR comes from, it's easy to be misleading when talking about PAR from monochromatic LEDs. Rest assured, you will have more than enough intensity on tap.